Moods Of The Sea Pendant

This handmade one-of-a-kind pendant features a stunning piece of gem grade Azurite and an 'eye' of Fordite (aka Dagenham Agate).

Azurite comes via Arabic and the Persian word lazhward. The mineral has been used since ancient times for paint pigment jewellery and makeup. It is produced by the weathering of copper ore deposits and where the mineral has been exposed to air, Malachite has formed. This stunning bright gemstone measures 40mm by 15mm & is 5mm thick.

Fordite is a unique automotive enamel material, with an interesting history. The original layered automotive paint slag "rough" was made incidentally, years ago, by the now extinct practice of hand spray-painting multiples of production cars in big automotive factories.The oversprayed paint in the painting bays gradually built up on the tracks and skids that the car frames were painted on. Over time, many colorful layers built up there. These layers were hardened repeatedly in the ovens that the car bodies went into to cure the paint. Some of these deeper layers were even baked 100 times. Eventually, the paint build-up would become obstructing, or too thick and heavy, and had to be removed.

As the story goes, some crafty workers with an eye for beauty realised that this unique byproduct was worth salvaging. It was super-cured, patterned like psychedelic agate, and could be cut and polished with relative ease!

Sadly, the techniques that produced this are no longer in practice. Cars are now painted by way of an electrostatic process that essentially magnetizes the enamels to the car bodies. This leaves little, or no overspray. The old factory methods that created this incredible material are long gone.

The pendant is framed by felted merino wool in gorgeous blues and turquoises with a sterling silver circular charm stamped 'Moods Of The Sea'.